Doctor X

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An early Warner Brothers horror-comedy, released in 1932.

It follows New York newspaperman Lee Taylor as he covers the investigation of a series of full-moon murders in which victims are strangled, cut with a scalpel, and partially cannibalized. Evidence points to the Academy of Surgical Research, where five scientists -- including the director, Dr. Xavier -- have remained to continue their research while the students are on holiday.

Desperate to protect the reputation of his institution, Xavier strikes a bargain with the police: he will bring the suspects to his Long Island mansion and monitor their vital signs as they watch staged reenactments of the crimes. If he can discover the killer within 48 hours, his name and the Academy's will not be revealed to the newspapers in connection with the murders.

Lee will have nothing of this. He reports the story anyway, and secretly follows the investigation right to the mansion. Too bad Xavier's daughter, Joanne, already recognizes him . . .

Doctor X was shot in both black-and-white and Technicolor; it was one of the last films to use the two-strip Technicolor process. The color version was believed to be lost until 1978, when a print was discovered in Jack Warner's personal collection. This, in its restored form, is now considered the definitive print, and is the only version to be released on home video.

Doctor X provides examples of:

• Ambiguously Prussian - Rowitz.
• Artificial Limbs - Wells's hand.
• Beach Episode - Lee and Joanne have a long conversation on the beach in the middle of the film, solely to get in a bit of comic relief (from him) and Fan Service (from her).
• Beat Still My Heart - Wells's experiment, a heart kept alive in a jar.
• Deadly Prank - Inverted. An Explosive Cigar saves Lee's life by startling the killer at a critical moment.
• Disney Villain Death - Combined, gruesomely, with Kill It With Fire.
• Electric Joy Buzzer - Averted. Such a device features prominently in the plot (and is even used as a weapon), but it's the realistic, mechanical kind.
• Fan Service - Joanne's bathing suit.
• For Science! - Part of Wells's motivation.
• Fridge Logic - Not until the fifth victim is it discovered that the bodies have been cannibalized?
• GPS Evidence - Police narrow the suspect pool considerably when they discover that the scalpel used in the murders must have come from the Academy of Surgical Research.
• Hollywood Darkness - Averted at least twice: when the lights go out during the first reenactment, and in The Tag.
• I'm a Humanitarian - The killer. Also implied to be part of Haines's and Rowitz's backstory.
• Instant Sedation - In the form of knockout gas, used on Lee while he is in the room of skeletons.
• Intrepid Reporter - A variation. Lee pursues his story relentlessly, but otherwise doesn't fit the character type: he's a skittish Non-Action Guy who only stays on the case because of pressure from Da Editor.
• Lovable Coward - Lee.
• Lunacy
• Mad Scientist - All of the doctors have elements of this, but the killer embodies the trope perfectly.
• Mad Scientist Laboratory
• Narm - "Synthetic flesh! Synthetic flesh!"
• Porn Stash - Haines's magazine of "French art," hidden in a book.
• Red Right Hand - Three of the five doctors have physical oddities that could potentially mark them as villainous: Haines wears a goatee, Rowitz has a facial scar and a dark monocle, and Duke uses a wheelchair and crutches. Of the other two, Xavier is ordinary-looking and Wells's one-handedness actually exempts him from suspicion.
• Relationship Writing Fumble (or possibly just a case of Have a Gay Old Time) - Joanne addresses her father as "darling."
• Retroactive Recognition - Yup, that's Fay Wray as Joanne.
• Running Gag - The hand buzzer.
• Serial Killer
• Shadow Discretion Shot
• Sliding Scale of Comedy and Horror - Leans heavily toward the comedic side, except during the climax.
• Spanner in The Works - Lee, during the second reenactment.
• Spiritual Predecessor - To Mystery of the Wax Museum.
• Techno Babble - Xavier's explanation of the stress-detecting device:

Gentlemen, I am now turning on the hundred-milliampere high-frequency coil. Your pulses are connected with the magnetic rotators, and each variation of your heartbeat reaction is amplified four thousand times. The rotor of the electrostatic machine is connected in multiple series with a bank of glass-plate condensors, and the discharge causes irradiations to the thermal tubes, which, in turn, indicate your increased pulse rate and nerve reactions.

• Trailers Always Lie - The original marketing depicted the film as a comedy-thriller-romance, deliberately concealing the substantial horror element.
• Under Crank - Used, fairly subtly, in the final fight scene.
• Waking Up At the Morgue - Played with. Lee hides in the morgue by posing as a corpse, but then behaves as though he hadn't expected to be there. And where did the toe tag come from?
• Well-Intentioned Extremist - "I'll make a crippled world whole again!"

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A sequel, The Return of Dr. X, was filmed in 1939. Humphrey Bogart was in it.